Friday’s Headlines: Business School Entrepreneur Contests Get Practical

Business schools have long held headline-garnering entrepreneur contests. The little-known secret is that few of the winners ever become viable businesses. But now some programs are driving down to the granular, forcing contestants to detail the practical, nuts-and-bolts details of running a start-up, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Despite winning tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, many winning entries over the years are never realized into businesses. To remedy this, Wellesley, for one, is launching a new competition which requires entrants to present a PowerPoint presentation which reveals the steps they took to develop their proposed business – including interviewing potential customers or conducting market research. At the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, a new contest will present contestants with the same hypothetical business, including product idea, market and a problem it is facing, and each team will be required to determine the viability of that business and propose an alternative. The Journal writes:

Darden says the contest would reward students for understanding and applying the steps necessary for starting a business, rather than rewarding students for coming up with the best—even if unproven—idea. The school hopes the experience would put team members in a better position to launch their own ventures down the line.

 

Other News:

Barclay’s IB employees can expect pay to be down by 25 percent to 30 percent. [Bloomberg]

Evercore’s profit jumps 29 percent. [DealBook]

MBA applications in Europe have slowed. [WSJ]

Bankers and lawyers said competition regulators are stifling deals at a time when the economy already poses challenges. [Reuters]

Rumors circulate that Goldman PR man Lucas van Praag may be on the outs. [NY Times]

Independent brokerages face an uncertain future. [Businessweek]

Graphic: A look at IB salaries since 2000. [Businessweek]

Graphic: A look a the success rate of Internet IPOs. [NY Times]

Raymond James gives new Morgan Keegan reps the option to be independent or employees. [Investment News]

Swiss Bank Wegelin was charged with helping U.S. clients shelter funds. [Bloomberg]

UBS and Credit Suisse are among 12 banks facing a Swiss probe into the latest LIBOR manipulation investigation. [Bloomberg]

Indonesian mutual fund assets are expected to grow by 20% this year. [Businessweek]

Hackers that had focused on Brazilian banking sites turned their attention HSBC’s local and global web pages. [WSJ]